Impressive estuary reports discussed

The Kowie Estuary is described as “an artificially permanently open system that meanders in a southeasterly direction for about 21km towards its mouth and dissects the coastal town of Port Alfred”.

In accordance with the National Estuarine Management Protocol (NEMP), an Estuarine Management Plan (EMP) for the Kowie Estuary must be developed.

The draft report was initially presented at the Ndlambe Municipality open council meeting on August 30.

The aim of this draft report is to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the Kowie Estuary and to prevent further habitat loss and reduce cumulative impacts.

Among other infrastructural issues, the reconstruction of collapsing stone wall banks between the Nico Malan

Bridge and the river mouth and also other restoration is required, including the cleaning of the salt marsh areas.

The EMP for the Kowie Estuary is ultimately intended to improve the state of the coastal, and more specifically, the estuarine environment for the Kowie Estuary.

The Draft Report was prepared by Habitat Link Consulting in consultation with Coastwise Consulting.

Parra’s chair, Dawie van Wyk, attended the open council meeting and provided feedback that the presentation of the draft report was very impressive and professionally prepared.

The draft report points out that one of the key features of the estuary and its surrounds is the relatively large urban environment around it, and also the other different land uses further upstream, including: farming, game farming, agricultural, residential, holiday accommodation and light industrial operations.

These, along with the large salt marsh area and an artificial permanently open river mouth, makes the Kowie Estuary a particularly complex system and therefore requires a variety of management measures.

The draft report indicated that it is not a national priority estuary. However in its current state is regarded as vulnerable due to the poor protection of its system.

It is therefore categorised as “highly important” and is ranked 33rd in terms of biodiversity importance.

The draft report is an extensive document (51 pages) and is accordingly available on Parra’s website (www.parra.org.za) for full review by any interested parties.

Issues, recommendations and monitoring strategies are set out in the document and provide what appears to be a long-term process of ensuring protection of the estuary.

The draft report concluded that the Kowie Estuary has a long history of human modification and that due to its important biodiversity and socioeconomic value to the area, it is important to prevent any further deterioration.

This draft EMP is available in hardcopy at the Port Alfred Public Library or electronically on Parra’s website under “Latest News”.

The appointed consultants further hosted a community workshop session on Wednesday September 21.

At this workshop, a more thorough and comprehensive Situation Assessment Report (SAR) was presented and discussed (88 pages), also available on Parra’s website.

This SAR deals more extensively with the biophysical, socio-economic, institutional and legal status quo pertaining to the Kowie Estuary.

Aspects of this report were discussed at the workshop, one of which discussed extensively by the attendees being the revising of the water skiing zones.

There are three skiing zones and in the SAR it is proposed that skiing is no longer allowed in the Bay of Biscay because of the impact on the surrounding environment.

It is proposed that the other two zones are enlarged. However, attendees raised many concerns around reducing the skiing areas on the river.

We encourage all interested parties to please read the SAR as it is an extensive report.

Should parties wish to submit any comments, queries or input they are welcome to contact Roberto Almanza (roberto@habitatlink.co.za or 082-9308711).

Any comments on the draft EMP need to be submitted to the consultants on or before October 5.

Ndlambe LM has not budgeted for the implementation of this management plan as of yet.

The process will need to involve ongoing monitoring and will be revised every five years as per the SAR.

We encourage all residents and ratepayers to join Parra and help us hold the municipality accountable where it is not performing and to commend it where it is performing.

Membership forms can be found on our website and we have made the joining process simple with an online payment system.

Join us and be part of helping us work together to build a better Port Alfred.